2 days ago
NSW Premier accused of ‘victim-blaming' Kathleen Folbigg over meeting rejection
NSW Premier Chris Minns has been slammed for using 'disparaging language' in his refusal to meet with Kathleen Folbigg, who is seeking compensation for her wrongful conviction.
Ms Folbigg spent 20 years behind bars over the deaths of her four children before being exonerated in 2023 after new medical evidence came to light, leading to her being pardoned by the NSW Attorney-General.
On Monday, Mr Minns was grilled about whether he would meet with Ms Folbigg following reports that she had made multiple requests to meet with the Premier about her compensation claim.
Last week, Ms Folbigg told that her legal team hasn't heard from the government for a year, forcing her to stay with a friend and unable to secure a rental property.
'There's a lot of difficult calls for me to make as Premier. This isn't one of them,' Mr Minns told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
'I think that, given that there's a process that's been undertaken, we should let that take place before I insert myself in the middle of those negotiations.'
Mr Minns said that Ms Folbigg had lodged a claim for an ex gratia payment instead of suing the state directly, making it a more 'complex issue'.
Ms Folbigg's lawyer Rhanee Rego has previously said her team would be seeking the biggest compensation payment to date in Australia.
'It's unusual circumstances. I'm not going to insert myself in [the Attorney-General's] deliberations,' Mr Minns said.
'Like every citizen in the state, she's entitled to take her matter to the courts and sue the NSW government, but this is a complex issue given she won't do that.'
His comments have been criticised by the NSW Greens, with justice spokesperson Sue Higginson saying she was 'shocked' by his statements.
'I'm shocked at the disparaging language Labor Premier Chris Minns is using when talking in public to Kathleen Folbigg and I am concerned about his lack of understanding of our justice system,' she said in a statement.
'The Premier Chris Minns has essentially engaged in victim-blaming, and he should be more mindful when talking through the powerful media to a woman who has lost four children to a rare genetic disease and who was wrongfully imprisoned for decades by the state he represents.'
Ms Higginson said Mr Minns needed to 'undertake trauma-informed communication' before making further comments on the matter and urged him to make an apology.
'Saying, as Premier, that you make hard decisions but 'this isn't one of them' – it's incredibly callous and cruel, particularly in the circumstances while Ms Folbigg is simply exercising her rights to access justice and has in fact spared the State protracted legal proceedings,' Mr Higginson said.
'Ms Folbigg has chosen not to sue the NSW Government after being wrongfully convicted. Chris Minns is repaying her grace and her choice with ghosting, accusations and dismissals.
'Misogynistic and dismissive tone is not what people expect from the Premier and it is retraumatizing for a woman who has been the victim of a historic miscarriage of justice.'
Folbigg case
It's been more than two years since Ms Folbigg was released from prison after falsely being found guilty of murdering her three youngest children, Patrick, Sarah and Laura, and the manslaughter of her oldest child, Caleb, between 1989 and 1999 in the Hunter Region.
Ms Folbigg was jailed in 2003.
Twenty years later, a 2023 inquiry into the deaths raised reasonable doubt that the Folbigg children could have died due to natural causes or a rare genetic mutation.
The report found Ms Folbigg shared the same genetic mutation as her daughters.
Chief Justice Andrew Bell, alongside two other appeal judges, reviewed the inquiry report by retired Chief Justice Tom Bathurst and said in the court judgment that the new medical evidence raised 'reasonable doubt' as to Ms Folbigg's guilt.
In his report, Mr Bathurst determined there was an 'identifiable cause' of three of the children's deaths and no direct evidence that Ms Folbigg killed her children.
